Analysis of A Song : The Sparkling Eye
William Cowper 1731 (Berkhamsted) – 1800 (Dereham)
The sparkling eye, the mantling cheek,
The polished front, the snowy neck,
How seldom we behold in one!
Glossy locks, and brow serene,
Venus' smiles, Diana's mien,
All meet in you, and you alone.
Beauty, like other powers, maintains
Her empire, and by union reigns;
Each single feature faintly warms:
But where at once we view displayed
Unblemished grace, the perfect maid
Our eyes, our ears, our heart alarms.
So when on earth the god of day
Obliquely sheds his tempered ray,
Through convex orbs the beams transmit,
The beams that gently warmed before,
Collected, gently warm no more,
But glow with more prevailing heat.
Scheme | XXXAAX BBXCCX DDXEEX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101011 01010101 11010101 1010101 1010101 11010101 101101001 010001101 11010101 11111101 01010011 10110110101 11110111 01011101 10110101 01110101 01010111 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 612 |
Words | 107 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 163 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 32 sec read
- 112 Views
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"A Song : The Sparkling Eye" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/39793/a-song-%3A-the-sparkling-eye>.
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